Lalat itu hinggap di piring kotor.

In Indonesian, demonstratives like ini and itu usually come after the noun.

• lalat itu = that fly / the fly
• piring itu = that plate / the plate

So lalat itu is the normal Indonesian order, even though English says that fly.

Hinggap means something like to land on, to perch on, or to alight on, especially for small animals such as:

• flies
• birds
• butterflies
• other insects

It is more specific than a general verb like sit. A fly hinggap on something because it briefly lands there.

Di is a preposition meaning in, at, or on, depending on the context.

In this sentence:

• di piring kotor = on the dirty plate

Even though English uses on, Indonesian often just uses di for location. The exact English translation depends on what makes sense in context.

It could be, but di piring is already natural.

• di piring = on the plate / at the plate
• di atas piring = on top of the plate

Adding atas makes the location more explicit. Without it, Indonesian often leaves that unstated if it is obvious from the situation.

So:

• Lalat itu hinggap di piring kotor. = natural
• Lalat itu hinggap di atas piring kotor. = also correct, more specific

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

• piring kotor = dirty plate
• rumah besar = big house
• air dingin = cold water

So piring kotor is the normal order in Indonesian.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Indonesian does not have articles like a, an, and the in the same way English does. So:

• piring kotor could mean a dirty plate
• or the dirty plate

The listener figures it out from context.

Because Indonesian usually does not need an article like the.

English often requires:

• the dirty plate
• a dirty plate

Indonesian often just says:

• piring kotor

If the speaker wants to make it more clearly definite, they can add itu:

• piring kotor itu = that dirty plate / the dirty plate

No verb form changes for tense here.

Hinggap stays the same whether the action is happening now, happened before, or will happen later. Time is usually understood from context or added with time words such as:

• tadi = earlier
• kemarin = yesterday
• sekarang = now
• besok = tomorrow

So Lalat itu hinggap di piring kotor could refer to different times depending on context.

By itself, lalat can be singular or plural in Indonesian. Nouns do not automatically change form for plural the way English nouns often do.

However, in this sentence, lalat itu usually sounds like that fly or the fly, so singular is the most natural reading.

If you clearly wanted the flies, you might say:

• lalat-lalat itu

But Indonesian often leaves number to context.

Here, kotor is describing piring inside the noun phrase:

• piring kotor = dirty plate

So the sentence means the fly landed on a plate that was dirty.

If you wanted to say The plate is dirty, that would be a different structure:

• Piring itu kotor.

There, kotor is the predicate, not just an adjective inside a noun phrase.

No, not in this sentence.

Because itu comes right after lalat, it belongs to lalat itu.

So the structure is:

• lalat itu = that/the fly
• piring kotor = dirty plate

If you wanted that dirty plate, you would say:

• piring kotor itu

It breaks down like this:

• lalat itu = that/the fly
• hinggap = landed / perched
• di = at / on / in
• piring kotor = dirty plate

So the structure is:

subject + verb + location

That is a very common Indonesian sentence pattern.